From: Florian Gross <flgr@...>
Date: 2005-01-30T03:00:52+09:00
Subject: Re: Ten Things Every Java Programmer Should Know About Ruby

Navindra Umanee wrote:

>>* Ruby is strongly typed, not statically typed. Each variable has a
>>strict type that it represents, but a type declaration is not needed
>>in e.g. method definitions. The result of this is that you don't treat
>>and classify objects based on what their type is, you do it based on
>>what that particular object can do. This concept is called 'duck
>>typing': "If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it's a
>>duck".
> 
> What is the point of strong typing then?

Not having your Objects changing types all the time without you 
noticing. If you forget to initialize a field in PHP it will be 
converted to zero or an empty String if necessary thus shadowing your 
bug. Strong typing usually is a requirement for languages where OOP 
works well.